


the people are talking (the people are saying that you have been playing my heart)

by Percyjacksonfan3



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: F/M, Minor Character Death, Post-Season/Series 03, Resolved Sexual Tension, Sort Of, beth and rio are finally talking about their issues, this is basically just an angsty one shot, well as happy as it gets with these two, with a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:09:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25834771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Percyjacksonfan3/pseuds/Percyjacksonfan3
Summary: “What do you think the worst things we’ve done to each other are?”Or, the one where Beth and Rio finally reach a point where they talk about things. Beth is drunk. Rio just wanted to celebrate their latest breakthrough.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Comments: 28
Kudos: 320





	the people are talking (the people are saying that you have been playing my heart)

**Author's Note:**

> After finishing the series and writing for two hours I made... this. It's basically just me writing out some angst because season 3 left SO MANY things unresolved. There's a happy ending though.
> 
> Title from the song "Grand Piano" by Nicki Minaj.

This time when Rio hands her over the FBI agent who’s been causing them so much trouble on his version of a silver platter Beth takes the gun calmly. Gripped in her gloved hands, feet spread shoulder width apart, she breaths out and doesn’t shoot the man she’s spent the better part of a year working to kill.

It’s almost an exact replica of the scene from months ago with Agent Turner. Just a different body tied up and bleeding, a different voice croaking at her for help.

The difference is this time Beth doesn’t shoot Rio. She shoots Donnegan and while she does she remembers what Christopher said about emptying the clip; the gun is a pound lighter when the empty barrel clicks, right before she throws it across the empty room with all of her strength while her whole body shakes.

Then that’s it. The invisible line that had loomed so large over Ruby, Annie and her is crossed. One of them is a murderer now.

It’s the thing she’d quietly talked to Ruby about on a late wine night back when they’d first got involved in this whole mess. With the lights off as they sprawled across Beth’s living room in the expectant silence it seemed reminiscent of their high school sleepovers. Except that night, instead of boys, they’d confessed in hushed voices the promise of eventually one of them doing what they had admitted they were both terrified of.

But Beth had lied. Not that she’d known it at the time but now, with this- it seemed obvious. She wasn’t terrified and she hadn’t been when Rio had driven her here or when she’d walked in and seen what this was.

She wasn’t even crying.

No, Beth doesn’t feel anything.

The gun skitters across the concrete so forcefully it hits the opposite wall but she’s already forgotten it and turned to looked at Rio, awaiting his verdict, and for the other shoe to drop like it always does.

He looks surprised.

It seems strange that it’s his expression she focuses on, but it’s all she can think of. She’s fine, she thinks, but she can’t speak. Her tongue feels thick and her mouth won’t move.

She’s fine, but her entire body is still trembling and it must be the cold because suddenly her bones feel like ice. And he’s all she can see, like her vision tunnels for a moment, before she blinks and takes in a deep gasp of air and then her sight clears again.

And then suddenly his arms are around her.

She’d noticed how warm he was before, when they’d been in close proximity to one another. This time the heat of him hits her full force when it comes into contact with her frozenness.

They’re cheek to cheek and it’s a moment of weakness that makes her lay her head on his shoulder, finally allowing herself to take a deep and shaky breath as he holds her. Seconds pass like that, both of them still and standing together, and as her breathing slowly evens out his hands begin to rub her upper arms. His movements are slow at first, almost hesitant, but when she doesn’t say anything or move away he seems to settle into the motion and grow more sure of himself.

She wonders if he’s as practiced at this as she is. Soothing somebody like a child, calming them down like she’s done countless times with her own kids. As he’s surely done with his son.

It’s quiet for a long time before he speaks, soft and quiet. “I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”

She huffs a breath that isn’t quite laughter. “Well, give a girl a test enough times and she’s bound to pass eventually.”

Rio doesn’t seem to find it funny. His admission is startling as he speaks quietly, right in her ear. “I thought you’d kill me.”

Several beats pass. “I did try.”

She reminds him, knowing it’s a stupid thing to say as she pulls back a bit, staying close enough for his hands to rest on her elbows. He’s gripping her tighter than necessary, and she wonders if it’s to scare her or to stop her pulling away further.

She thinks she knows.

His eyes darken at the reminder and she understands that he hears what she doesn’t say. She did try, yes. Several times. And he knows that. Had caught them all, always one step ahead of her after the night she’d shot him, no matter what she thought of next.

But she couldn’t do it. Manny was a bust and she’d called off the hitman after Annie and Ruby practically forced her to.

They’d cornered her at the last second, because after all their careful planning Beth had confessed to being unsure about it to Annie, drank several glasses of bourbon too many and yelled at Dean over absolutely nothing before kicking him out. Ruby said Mr. Fitzpatrick was right. Annie said she was too involved, too much like a jilted lover. It would only end in tears and regret.

Not all of them hers.

She can’t kill him; even Beth knows the definition of insanity. Besides, she’s sick of throwing her money away on something that will never come true. The cash would be better in Annie or Ruby’s pockets instead, paying their bills.

“Mmm.” Is all he says and finally he lets her go, taking a step back, though their eyes are still locked even as both of them are lost in their own thoughts. “You good?”

“Yep.” Her voice comes out way too high. “Fine.”

He doesn’t believe it. She sees it on his face.

He doesn’t call her on it though and she’s grateful for that.

“Come on Elizabeth. Let’s get a drink.”

* * *

They have several drinks.

The first one is drunk in silence and she thinks it must be weird to anybody who notices the two of them because they do nothing but watch each other the entire time, a strange tension laying over them both, wrapping them up like a cocoon.

Round two is broken by her because she can’t take it anymore. His leg rests against hers under the table and she keeps wondering whether it’s on purpose or not, whether he even notices, and if he does what he thinks about it.

“Who’s taking care of the body?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

She worries her lower lip, trying to figure out if he isn’t telling her because he doesn’t trust her or because he doesn’t want to concern her with the details. She wonders why she keeps trying to romanticize his actions when she knows exactly what kind of man he is.

But then she remembers him getting her daughter’s blanket back for her, and the way he kissed her in her bedroom, and suddenly she’s not so sure again.

The silence stretches too long and she says the first thing she thinks of.

“I really am fine.”

“Yeah.” He agrees, eyes never leaving her face. “That’s what’s so damn interesting.”

She takes another drink. They get a third round.

“How’s Marcus?”

“Nuh uh,” he shakes his head. “We’re not doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Bringing them into this. My kid stays outta it.”

She frowned. “I asked about him before.”

“Yeah, and I ignored you back then.” He pursed his lips. “Besides, that was before you scheduled play dates between him and your daughter over my dead body.”

Her mouth parts in surprise at the easy way he says it and at the _amusement_ in his eyes. She frowns. “Presumed dead.”

He shook his head. “Didn’t stop you.”

No, it didn’t. It really only encouraged her.

She’d thought he was her first kill. Compared to that, Donnegan didn’t seem so bad.

God something was wrong with her.

“I was trying to help the only way I knew how.”

His face doesn’t soften but something in his tone changes. “Why do you think I didn’t kill you on the spot?”

She ignores the way the words make something in her fall to answer his question, though it was obviously rhetorical. The memory of him sliding into the chair beside her at the bar and destroying the shreds of her former life she’d scraped back together is enough to make her fingers clench around her glass. “The witnesses?”

He rolls his eyes. “Waited for you in the parking lot then.”

“Right.” She replies after a beat, picturing it all too clearly, and takes another drink. A long one.

The conversation continues like that. Abrupt questions and answers, stilted and full of pauses. He asks about Annie and Ruby (“How are the girls?” he says, and she suddenly wonders if he even knows their names before realizing how ridiculous that was. Of course he did, he probably ran full background checks on all of them the second he figured out who robbed him), she says their fine. She politely inquires after Mick, which makes Rio scoff and say, “yeah, he’s good.”

It goes on, the few subjects they have in common quickly running out despite how they barely say a thing, until finally she’s well past drunk and feeling like her skin is on fire from all the things they still haven’t said. Things she’s suddenly desperate to voice, and whether it’s the alcohol, the fact that she’s crossed her final line or just the way he’s looking at her, Beth doesn’t know, but she asks the question that’s been plaguing the back of her mind for a while now.

“What do you think the worst things we’ve done to each other are?”

For the first time in what feels like weeks Beth thinks she finally has his full attention. He slips his phone in his pocket from where he’d been holding it. She thinks he’s waiting on a text or a call because though he’s held it in his hand all night he’d barely glanced away from her to check it. “What?”

Those dark eyes are unfathomable, but she knows his tells by now and she watches as he lifts his hand to rub the lower half of his face, hiding any quirks of his mouth that might give away what he’s thinking.

She’s surprised that she notices. Honestly, Beth had thought she was too drunk to pay attention to anything except the mess of emotions she’s feeling right now.

Rio seems to be the exception. Of course he is.

“You know.” He doesn’t move as she elaborates. “In our relationship.”

The word tastes bitter on her tongue as she remembers the last time they’d discussed it in such blatant terms. _Incentive_.

But that just reinforces her train of thought. They’re so screwed up, the two of them, so laden with this or that, of her betrayal or his betrayal. Of her not meeting his expectations and of his cruelty that always seems to end with only the two of them left standing, stumbling and scarred though they may be.

They’re a mess and it’s not new but it is something she’s only now fully realizing to be true. The two of them are so entwined with one another she can’t picture her future without him. He’s always there, lurking on the edges, picking up the pieces or breaking them in the first place, and she’s following in his wake trying to reach the top of the pedestal he’s built her or gaining the upper hand by building a new one for herself altogether.

Oh God. She really is drunk. Drunk and tired of everything being uncertain. She finally lost Dean- well, kicked him out, but still- who one of the last reliable things in her life. Not reliable for fidelity, or even love, but just as someone who was always there. Always around, a constant in her life since high school.

Now she just had Ruby and Annie and her kids. The most important people in her world, yes, but they have their own lives outside of her. Her kids will eventually grow up and move away, and Beth will be left alone in her big empty house with nothing but her cold money to keep her company.

She wants something, and she’s not sure what, but she knows it involves Rio. He’s everywhere right now, chasing every thought in her brain, invading every safe space she has, even in her dreams. They’ve come so far the two of them, allies and then enemies and now allies again, cautiously working together and building something that doesn’t just work but thrive. A business that could set them all up for the rest of their lives if they only stick it out and play it safe before using whatever exit strategies they each have in place to get away.

He’s always around right now, is the thing. And it’s not new but they’re in a place now where she feels comfortable pushing him like this, demanding certain answers to figure out the boundaries.

Beth wants to know what they are and to her that means rehashing old wounds. Honesty, something she’s never been able to do with Dean. Laying everything bare, the worst things they’ve ever done and said, whether it’s been to one another or others, and moving on.

_“Is that what I am? Work?”_

_“Pretty much, yeah.”_

She closes her eyes and then opens them as she waits for his answer. He’s still watching her.

“You shooting me has to be pretty high up there.”

“I lied.” She blurted out, almost not hearing him. “About the baby.”

This time his hand twitches but doesn’t move fast enough to cover the way his mouth works, the clench in his jaw as unhappiness plays across his face.

But no surprise.

“I just didn’t want you to kill me,” she carried on quietly, watching him for any hint of danger. Not that she’d be quick enough to do anything about it, probably. “I didn’t- it was the first thing I thought of.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything. There was still no surprise on his face. She wonders how he knew.

“So that’s pretty bad.” She finishes lamely and jumps when his hand darts out to grip her arm. Hard.

“Why are you doing this Elizabeth?”

“I don’t know.” The words just seem to keep falling from her mouth without her permission. She’d wanted clarification but she hadn’t planned on giving him yet another reason to finally decide she wasn’t worth the trouble and kill her.

But then she bit her lip, because that was a lie too. She knew why she’d started this conversation, and it wasn’t for marking boundaries. It was to ease her own mind because she’d felt so _guilty_. She’d been lying to him ever since he reappeared in her life and though she hadn’t seen any other way at the time, now she felt secure enough in her position and her importance to him to come clean.

She didn’t want to lie to him anymore.

Dammit.

She should just sleep with him again. It might make things messy, but it would at least give her something new to worry about instead of focusing on stupid silly things like this that were long past.

But then- she’d tried that, hadn’t she? She’d gotten all dressed up in the nicest dress she owned, taken ages to do her hair and her makeup, to choose the right underwear, all the while knowing she would seduce him if it had been necessary.

And he hadn’t taken the bait.

“I just thought I should be honest.” She finally says, admitting the truth, and she feels a stab of pleasure at the way he looks at her then.

He stares at her with burning eyes. She watches as he visibly swallowed before replying. “Fine. Then what’s mine?”

“Yours?”

“The worst thing I’ve done to you.” He clarified, taking another drink as he watched her, stealing any confidence she might have regained. “Killing your friend?”

Lucy. Beth suddenly feels worse than ever and any victory she had was gone.

“No.”

His eyebrow lifts slightly. “The blackmail? Risking your life? Taking your cut of the money?”

Her mouth is dry as she shakes her head.

He leaned forward. “Tell me.”

Suddenly that’s the last thing she wants, and she looks away, taking another drink. She should have lied. Should have agreed that it was Lucy and let the conversation die there.

She swallows the bourbon. “I think Dean and I are done. For good this time.”

He made a noise that could be dismissal or disgust, she’s not sure. “Tell me.”

Her hand clenches the glass too tight. “I don’t want to.”

“Oh no,” he’s not amused anymore as he sits back, shaking his head. “You brought it up, darlin’. And I’m interested now, seeing as you’ve apparently got it all worked out.”

She cleared her throat, still not meeting his eyes. “I don’t want to.” She holds up a hand to stop him interrupting. “Because I know it will mess everything up even more than it already is. You’ll lose any respect for me you might still have.”

Confusion makes him seem open, just for a moment. “I don’t see how.”

“You don’t now.” She agrees. “But after I say it- you would.”

He cocks his head, taking her in. Taking her seriously.

But he still challenges her. Backing down isn’t in his nature. “Try me. Elizabeth.”

She’s rolling the glass between her palms and staring into the amber liquid as if eventually her ignoring him will just make him get up and walk away.

He doesn’t. At the sound of her name she swallows her nerves, looks up, and stills her hands, speaking simply.

“The worst thing you ever did was make me fall in love with you.”

His phone vibrates in his pocket. Loudly.

He doesn’t even twitch.

Their eyes are locked but she sees the way his mouth parts slightly. He’s shocked, almost as shocked as when she’d shot him, and she caught his wide eyes just before he narrowed them to look at her appraisingly.

The sounds of the other bar patrons and workers seems muted, as if they’ve been silenced from their surroundings. Even the old pop music playing quietly doesn’t reach her.

She shrugs helplessly, trying to appear nonchalant, all the while knowing in the pit of her stomach that she’d just destroyed everything she’d worked so hard to rebuild. “Ruined my whole life.”

He cleared his throat, leaning back, hands against the edge of the table in their booth. Like he’s pushing himself away. “You give me too much credit.”

She shrugged again. A few seconds pass and he’s still staring at her, trying to figure this all out, to spot the lie.

But there is no lie this time. She’s never been good at lying to him but even so she’s not surprised he has to check.

“This a trick?”

“No.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” He reminded her.

“It’s not.” Her voice is harder now. She’s insulted, though she has no real right to be. She had lied about being pregnant after all and gotten away with it for a time. “Not this time.”

He rubbed his jaw with his hand before nodding and moving to stand. “Then you’re right.”

“About what?”

He doesn’t look at her before he leaves. “This messes everything up.”

And then he goes.

* * *

Much later Beth gets up to go as well. It’s probably close to closing time since the place has steadily been emptying for the past hour but she hadn’t really noticed. She’d been sitting alone drinking, half-hoping Rio would come back and half-hoping she’d never see him again.

The bartender kindly calls her a cab, says her tab for both the drinks and the ride has been taken care of, and sends her on her way home. Alone.

It takes her four tries to get her key into the lock properly and the entire time she doesn’t think about the fact that she killed someone tonight. She doesn’t think about Donnegan or the woman’s nameless family and friends, any unattended pets, or anything to do with her.

She thinks about the fact that she’s come home alone to an empty house after somehow convincing herself Christopher cared about her. Again.

Stupid.

Her sigh is loud as she finally gets in. She’s had too much to drink but Beth is still a responsible mother at heart, despite everything going on in her life recently, so she kicks off her shoes at the door and goes straight for the kitchen. The sink sounds loud in the oppressive silence as she hurriedly gulps the freshly poured glass of water before filling it up again and finally turning the tap off. The sudden quiet is jolting, and it does as much to sober her up as the water and cab ride back had.

She wonders what Dean is doing and then pushes the question away because she doesn’t really care that much. He’s out of the picture now, checked out long ago because he was tired of her always going back to Chistopher. Of choosing him, or so he’d said. She’s the one who’d made Dean go, but he’s the one who’d needed him to leave. She had been perfectly happy to continue carrying on as they had. Dean as her husband and Rio as… whatever he was to her. It was Dean who’d been suffering.

It made her no better than him, she knew that. But she hadn’t pretended, she hadn’t lied when he asked her about Rio. At least no more than she’d lied to herself, until that became impossible to do anymore. She’d been as honest as she could.

Maybe she should call Annie. Beth had picked her up after every heartache and breakup, surely her sister wouldn’t mind doing the same?

But then she pictures Annie’s face, that tell-tale tone of voice that she’d use when she said I told you so without putting it in those exact words. There would be gibes and jokes and right now Beth was too self-pitying to handle her sister’s brand of tough love. Annie was wonderful in so many situations, but she’d made her feelings regarding Beth and Rio quite clear.

“You never get to judge any of my relationships again,” she’d said, and even Beth had admitted that was fair.

There was always Ruby, and Beth was tempted, but she would have church tomorrow morning and Beth knew her best friend was trying so hard to be good again. She was doing what she needed, especially when it came to her religion. She was trying to save her and her family’s souls.

Beth wondered what it said about her that she’d given up on saving herself from this a long time ago.

And that’s it. The only two friends she has and her husband are all not options, and the other person she talks about her issues with is the cause of this one. So that leaves her alone to deal with this mess herself.

Fine. She’s done worse alone. If she can get through everything life’s already thrown at her then she can get through this too.

There’s a pile of dishes beside the sink from the dinner she had with the kids before they’d gone to Dean’s tonight. Beth slides off of her chair, pushes up her sleeves, and gets to work on them, ignoring the dishwasher in favor of scrubbing them spotless herself.

He knocks on her back door, and at first she’s not sure if she’s imagining it, surrounded by clacking dishes and the sound of scrubbing. She stops her movements, forearms submerged in the hot soapy water, and just as she’s convinced herself it was nothing, the knocks come again. Two taps, almost soft, at the door just beside where she stands.

She pulls her arms out, wipes them on the towel, and moves over to see who it is, though there’s only one person who would make sense.

And she’s right. He’s there in the dark, his black clothes making him hard to spot through the window of the door.

It’s the shock that makes her open it.

He’s never knocked before.

His eyes take her in as he steps forward, lingering on her red hands, darting to the sink full of bubbles, before his mouth quirks up in his version of a brief smile. It even looks sincere.

He moves to stand right in front of her, his breathing the only sound she hears, neither of them saying a thing as one of his hands carefully pushes her hair from her face.

Her breath catches.

“What are you doing?” She whispers hoarsely as his fingers move to cup her face, her own hands coming up automatically in response.

Suddenly she’s wishing she’d run her fingers through her hair or washed her face when she’d come home. Her makeup is a day old by now and she’s probably sweaty and there was possibly some flyaway blood from earlier on her somewhere. She should have showered first thing after getting back.

He ignores her and angles her head carefully before moving in to kiss her.

And oh.

 _That_. Right. That’s what this felt like, what _he_ felt like. That’s what she’d been missing she thinks, as heat shoots from her lips throughout her body, spreading like a blaze to curl low in her stomach.

Her eyes fell closed and she sank into him, opening her lips to kiss him back just as hungrily, moving her hands to put one around his shoulders, the other splayed across his chest.

When they part they’re both breathing hard. His eyes are so dark it’s hard to see any line of colour around the pupil and she feels the flush on her cheeks, that giveaway of her pale skin.

His voice is a gravelly rumble when he finally speaks. “Thought about what you said.”

“Which part?”

He gave her a look. “All of it.”

“Okay.” She says finally, because anything else seems foolish.

He’s still staring at her.

She swallows again. “And what did you decide?”

“It’s bad for business to get into bed with your partner. Mixing private and professional lives.” His eyes were challenging. “Especially in our line of work.”

She tries to figure out what he’s telling her. Is this a last chance to back out before they cross a line? Or is it a rejection?

“That didn’t stop you before.”

“We were still using each other before.” He licked his lips. “That’s not what we’re doing now.”

“It’s not?”

He seemed frustrated. “I’m not a house-in-the-suburbs type of guy, Elizabeth.”

She didn’t look away, but she did blink, not sure why he was telling her something so obvious. “I know.”

He just stared back at her and she blinked again, finally realizing what he was doing. She’d been right. Rio was warning her, in his own way. Reminding her of what she was signing up for.

It made her smile a small, private smile, just for herself but one that he saw anyway, his eyes darting down to her mouth sharply. She pulled away but grabbed his hand to pull him with her. They went towards the stairs leading up to her bedroom as she confessed, tone slightly playful. “I’m not that kind of woman anymore either.”

And he grinned too.

**Author's Note:**

> So we all agree that this show is going to end with Beth and Rio finally sorting everything out before getting together, living as king and queen of crime and then finish with them getting caught and Rio taking the fall, going to jail and Beth waiting for him until he gets out right? Because that's totally what I'm thinking.


End file.
